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SAN JOSE — Just because the end goal hasn’t changed doesn’t mean the approach is the same old, same old.

Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster was roasted earlier this week for saying his team would arrive at training camp next season with a make-the-playoffs mentality, with many media members and fans wondering aloud if they would abandon their youth movement in an attempt to squeeze into the post-season.

Not gonna happen.

At least, not on Feaster’s watch.

“It isn’t about let’s go do whatever we have to do, the way we’ve been doing it in the past, in terms of trading away draft picks and signing veteran free agents, to make the playoffs next year,” Feaster told the Calgary Sun in a candid interview prior to Friday night’s road meeting with the San Jose Sharks.

“The point of it is, as an organization, we are not going to settle for anything less than making the playoffs being our goal. We are not going to let our players, our coaches, our management, anyone, off the hook by saying ‘Well, we’re going to be a young team’ or ‘Well, we’re going to be an inexperienced team’ or ‘Well, we’re rebuilding or re-tooling or whatever, so it’s OK if we don’t win. We shouldn’t even think about playoffs for the next X number of years.’

“That’s not how we’re going to approach it because if we do, then the entire organization develops that mentality of, ‘Well, it’s OK to lose. We don’t have any expectations on us.’ And that’s wrong. That’s not what we believe is the right way to build an organization.

“That was the point of the message,” Feaster continued. “It’s the idea that, again, we’re going to go about it the right way. We are going to re-tool, and we are going to get young players in the lineup, and we’re going to continue to give our kids an opportunity to play and to grow, and that’s how we’re going to build.

“But while we’re doing that, we’re not going to say ‘No worries. No expectations. No pressure. Don’t even think about trying to be a playoff team.’ That’s not how it’s going to happen.”

The Flames officially embraced a rebuild … er …re-tool just over a week ago when they traded longtime captain and all-time scoring leader Jarome Iginla to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a first-round selection in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and college-level prospects Kenny Agostino (Yale) and Ben Hanowski (St. Cloud State), who will both skate in the NCAA’s Frozen Four tournament next weekend.

The Flames then shipped big-minute blueliner Jay

Bouwmeester to the St. Louis Blues for a first-rounder — either this year or next — and two prospects and sent winger Blake Comeau to the Columbus Blue Jackets to score an extra trip to the podium in the fifth round this summer.

Feaster has plenty of reasons to be excited about the 2013 NHL Entry Draft in New Jersey.

Not only will the Flames own multiple first-round picks for the first time in franchise history, but they’re feeling good about their scouting practices and about the development of the guys they’ve selected since putting an emphasis on character, hockey sense and skill as the pillars of their program.

Baertschi is still considered the team’s top offensive prospect despite some struggles in his first extended stint with the Flames. Wotherspoon, Granlund and Gaudreau all made positive statements at the world junior tournament, while Brossoit has the makings of a sixth-round steal.

Their haul from the 2012 NHL Entry Draft included Patrick Sieloff and Jon Gillies, both members of Team USA’s gold-medal group at the world juniors. The Flames’ decision-makers have been clear that first-rounder Mark Jankowski is a long-term project, but they still believe he could be the next Joe Nieuwendyk.

“We look at the 2011 and 2012 drafts as being really, really good for our organization,” Feaster said during Friday’s interview. “In 2010, we didn’t have a first, and we didn’t have a second. The organization didn’t make a pick until 64th overall, and that was Max Reinhart, and we think Max is going to play (in the NHL). Billy Arnold was a fourth-round pick, and we think Billy Arnold is going to play. Michael Ferland was picked in the fifth round. Maybe not tomorrow — we would love it to be next season but maybe not next season — but we think Michael Ferland is going to be a legitimate power forward in the league. I look at the (Zack) Kassian kid in Vancouver, and I’ve had this conversation with Michael — ‘We think you can be every bit as good if not a better player.’

“So we are excited about the kids we have coming. As I’ve said, though, we also have to start filling in the gaps because we do have a real gap from the 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds to the 29- and 30-year-olds. Those pieces have gone missing, and one of the reasons is that the organization was always looking for that veteran player, that trade-deadline-day deal to bring in the player that would be the one to help us get into the playoffs.

“That formula hasn’t worked. That’s the reason that we’re going in a different direction.”

In other words, don’t expect the Flames to be buyers at the trade deadline next season, either. Not if the price is a prospect or pick — parts they’ve been too willing to deal away in the past.

So let’s fast-forward a bit.

Let’s say it’s trade deadline day 2014, and Feaster is, once again, sizing up the future of the Flames.

Pray tell, how will he measure the progress?

“We need to be advancing our young people. We need to see that they are developing into NHL players the way we want them to develop,” Feaster said. “We want to see the continued growth of a T.J. Brodie. We need Brods to become even better than he’s been. We want to see leadership from a guy like Mark Giordano and a guy like Curtis Glencross. We want to see that Sven Baertschi now is becoming a solid pro and a guy that is contributing on a regular basis.

“Where we want to be a year from now is we want to see progress. We want to see that we’re going in the right direction and that we’re building the right way. Again, that’s going to be through these good young players and the kids that we’re drafting and the kids that we acquire in trades.

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Feaster clarifies playoff comment

SAN JOSE — Just because the end goal hasn’t changed doesn’t mean the approach is the same old, same old.

Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster was roasted earlier this week for saying his team would arrive at training camp next season with a make-the-playoffs mentality, with many media members and fans wondering aloud if they would abandon their youth movement in an attempt to squeeze into the post-season.

Not gonna happen.

At least, not on Feaster’s watch.

“It isn’t about let’s go do whatever we have to do, the way we’ve been doing it in the past, in terms of trading away draft picks and signing veteran free agents, to make the playoffs next year,” Feaster told the Calgary Sun in a candid interview prior to Friday night’s road meeting with the San Jose Sharks.

“The point of it is, as an organization, we are not going to settle for anything less than making the playoffs being our goal. We are not going to let our players, our coaches, our management, anyone, of